The longitudinal link between institutional and community trust in a local context - findings from a Swedish panel study

Abstract

Decades of social science stress the vital role of trust in a robust democracy, and scholars have explored the origins of trust, highlighting the dynamic interaction between institutional trust and generalised social trust. While the literature exhibits uncertainties regarding the causal direction between these various forms of trust, it generally suggests that trust in institutions spills over to trust in people in general. This article examines a neglected aspect of trust studies–the relationship between local institutional trust and community trust. Drawing on a two-wave panel study from Sweden, the results indicate bidirectional relationships between the two forms of trust over time. In so doing, this study contributes to the prior research by showing that in a local context, where daily interactions take place between community members and representatives of local institutions, the relationship between trust in neighbours and trust in local institutions appears to be more complex and interdependent.